Why WordPress is not suitable for all projects
WordPress is an awesome content management system that helps you build user-friendly websites and maintain blogs.
It has tons of themes, tools and plugins that would help you explore the different options in the platform and create an innovative, yet practical solution for bringing new people to your website.
But there is a catch to it. WordPress works great for certain kinds of sites only, hence, it is not for all. In this article, we will explore the different scenarios where this platform will not be suitable.
Before delving deeper into that, users must know the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a free and open source platform by Automatic and provides you with the downloadable version of WordPress software.
This is mainly a do-it -yourself platform where you can download and install, select hosting partners, use the control panels for easy installs. You will have to perform all the security updates and upgrades yourself too.
WordPress.com is more of a commercial entity where the software itself is a service, and hence a ready to use and out-of-the-box option. There is no need to download or install anything, just blogging would be fine.
The website itself handles all the security and updates for you, so it is definitely much easier. The basic version is free, and premium services are also available.
Despite all its advantages, WordPress.com does come with its own limitations, and that’s why it may not be suitable for all projects. Let’s examine the “why” of it.
1) You have earning limitations
It is not possible to have ads running on your WordPress blogs, especially those with Google Adsense or similar advertising programs. In fact, you cannot do any commercial activity of your own, so you cannot have paid posts, review products, sell links etc.
To combat this problem, WordPress offers WordAds, an advertising program exclusively for advertising purposes. This is provided for websites with high quality content in them.
2) Theme limitations
WordPress is known for its themes, but there are a couple of problems. The comprehensive collection of themes is free, but they have limited functionalities. You cannot extend the functionalities by uploading functionalities.
There are people who migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org so they play with the plugins and their amazing features.
3) Limitations in theme upload
While there are a few things you can do around with the themes, you cannot modify the theme features, theme functionality or even the themes themselves.
You can pay extra money and add CSS and fonts in the theme, but that’s about all what you can do with the themes.
4) Search is limited
The results in WP are sorted by date, not according to relevance, and there is no advanced search options.
As the content system doesn’t do the too tech part of the SEO tasks, you will have to add plugins and optimise the site to help figure in the search results. For very strong and accurate search results you will have to install Google Site Search.
5) Comes with its own PHP syntax and functions
WP is not proprietary, hence, open source, and experienced developers can have a field day with the content system. But non-developers or inexperienced developers (with knowledge of only HTML) will have to go through a bit of the learning curve, as the language system has its own PHP syntax and functions. And you will have to set up WordPress testing server to preview a post in your browser.
6) Be on the alert when you make frequent upgrades
With a blog, you will have to do frequent upgrades. But the problem is that when your theme or plugins get updated, something could get broken. To prevent this, you could make a backup and check everything thoroughly before going live. This could be time-consuming and hence not suitable for all projects.
7) Not really very suitable for mobile websites
As long as the intention is to blog, WordPress would be perfect, but when you need to open a mobile friendly website, then it wouldn’t be such a good choice.
This is because the responsive breakpoints may not correspond to mobile devices. Yes, there are some modern looking designs, but not everybody uses them because they need advanced CSS/PHP skills.
Where can you use this CMS
This probably brings you to the question – “Which kind of projects should I use WordPress”. Given below are certain examples for which the content management system would be a good choice:
- The vast community is majorly helpful – WordPress has over 60% share in the CMS market, and about 30% of websites are written with it. So if you want to build a simple website with the help of experienced developers, go with it by all means.
- To build a site with lots of videos, slideshows and podcasts – If you are looking at a DIY project with plenty of multimedia content, and not just images and blog content, go for it.
- Many good themes and frameworks – WordPress Themes are collections of files, called templates that work together to develop a graphical interface for weblogs. With the correct modifications, the theme shows the way in which a site is displayed, as you don’t have to modify the underlying software. All you need to do is pick a theme that would be suitable as per your technical expertise and requirement of the website.
- You can build a simple online store – Woocommerce is the right choice if you want to build an online store and start selling right away. There some beautiful functionalities that you would want to try with this rich e-commerce theme of WordPress.
Conclusion
Like everything in life, WordPress too does have its share of the good and the bad. The content system is built for blogging and is great for updates, and if your site is something that doesn’t require frequent updates, then WordPress.com would be a great solution.
Because with complicated plugins, database queries and theme functionalities come slower load times and low responses. And that could deter people from using your website.
Interesting Articles:
Interesting answers on team treehouse on why WordPress is not suitable for all
Top 5 reasons why WordPress is not a good choice for every type of websites
Picture Source: Flickr.com/ StickerGiant/ Titanas
About the author: Reema works as Thought Leader at PHPBabu.
